Gold Prices Edge Down, Weighed By Falling Earnings
Gold prices slumped to a one-month low on Friday, falling more than 1 percent amid recent bout of disappointing quarterly earnings from quite a few Wall Street heavy weights which prompted equities sell-off across-the-board , denting the market sentiment, raising apprehensions over the global macroeconomic outlook thereby reducing metal’s allure as inflation-hedge.
U.S. gold futures for December delivery lost 1.2% to settle at $1,724 an ounce, posting second successive weekly loss and tumbling 2% for the week, a steepest plunge in last three months.
The SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD) ended the day 1.08% lower at $166.94.
Earlier in September when the Federal Reserve announced its bond buying program, more popularly known as QE3, the yellow metal rallied, looking all set to hit the $1,800 an ounce mark. Nonetheless, with global economic environment showing no signs of recovery yet, bullion investors have been closing their bullish bets on gold, weighing on prices.
All the gains made by gold following the resumption of QE3 have now eroded. While falling earnings from Companies such as Google Inc, Microsoft and General Electric have raised question mark over the economic outlook, slowing China’s economy (with no signs of fresh round of monetary easing as Beijing gears up for once-a-decade leadership change in few weeks times), and no substantial progress made in the recent EU summit, gold prices are likely to remain under pressure in the short term.
Although the EU leaders jointly agreed over the issue of making the European Central Bank (ECB) as the sole supervisory authority to oversee the functioning of euro zone banks, thereby paving the way for recapitalization of ailing banks, investors were cautious as no substantial progress was made in finding long lasting solutions with regard to the debt crisis.
The problem is that many euro zone banks, urgently require recapitalization from EU rescue funds [European Stability Mechanism or (ESM), but these banks cannot receive funds until the legal framework to make the ECB as a supervisor is established. It is expected that legal framework will be prepared by the end of the year, much earlier than expected.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI), a gauge on whether the metal is oversold or overbought, dropped below 40 on Friday. A reading above 70 indicates that the metal has been overbought. Earlier in September the RSI index for gold climbed over 80. This Unprecedented slip in RSI index might attract some bargain hunting.
Nevertheless, some traders while speaking to Reuters warned that gold prices could further slip. A report released by the Commodities Trading Futures Commission (CFTC) showed that money and hedge fund managers raised their bullish positions on gold futures to a record high last week, ( loftiest since last 14 months) and in the wake of recent slide in gold prices, investors might prefer profit booking.
Commenting over slump in the gold prices, Frank McGhee, head precious metals trader of Integrated Brokerage Services LLC said to Reuters, “People who rushed in for QE expecting to get a significant lift are getting out of the market, the longer we don’t make a new high, the more people start getting nervous about where gold is trading.”
Moving onto some other precious metal markets, silver futures lost 2.4%, to settle at $32.10 an ounce. Platinum for January delivery plunged 1.7%, to end at $1,615.50 an ounce while December palladium slumped 3.7%, to end the day at $623 an ounce,
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Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.
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